Wales (SWCC based) SRT suggestions ??

Geoff R

New member
Tony_B said:
SWCC does not currently offer a Pwll Dwfn survey for sale, and in fact I'm not sure I've even seen one. But trust me that you really don't need one; each pitch pretty much follows the next and there is really nowhere else to go! Finding the entrance is the trickiest bit...

Thanks Tony, so please do ignore my survey request.
Reading Pwll Dwfn's description I guessed as much that it would be hard to get lost. 
Thats why I like SRT, a nice thick bit of string to follow back out  (y)

I do like to be careful with my homework; equally so with local weather etc.   
No harm taking a little care with these things
esp as I dont know this cave    :)




 

cap n chris

Well-known member
Hi Geoff, PD is a great little cave. I've got a topo if you want one - PM me. Have a great time; it's just like Rhino Rift only Welsh.
 

Tony_B

Member
OK, here is my off-the-top-of-my-head description of how to find Pwll Dwfn. I strongly recommend, however, the use of a GPS or someone who's been there before!

From the DYO car park take the obvious path from the campsite up the hill. Go through the kissing gate next to the breeze-block sheep pens (from where the River Haffes is visible to your right), and keep following the path up a steep incline and round a couple of bends, to where there is a tree and a wooden sign with a walker symbol on it. Follow the direction the sign is pointing, which will take you alongside a ramshackle dry stone wall with a wire fence on it. After a couple of hundred metres the obvious path veers R away from the wall up onto the hillside; this bit is quite steep and as it starts to level off (getting close to Tunnel Cave, for those who know where that is) you will see a much less significant path (more a sheep track) on your left that heads up the hill at an angle, heading vaguely S. It is more obvious when the bracken is lower, as at this time of year. (The sharp-eyed may spot that there are two such paths; you want the upper one.) Take this path up and over a crest to where it descends into a dry valley: the entrance to Pwll Dwfn is immediately adjacent to the path, on the R as you walk from DYO, at pretty much the lowest point of the dry valley. There is a (very) poor excuse for a wall around it; it's just a few stones placed in a line so don't waste time looking for a proper wall! As someone has already pointed out, there is a large rectangular-ish block immediately above the drop down into the cave. In all but the driest conditions you can hear water dripping and echoing if you stick your head in, and in doing this you will notice the wear-marks where cavers have slithered down the slightly awkward entrance.

Beware of the fact the fact that the start of the first pitch is almost immediately inside the entrance, although there is room to slide down and sort yourself out before you need to start rigging.

I hasten to point that I accept no responsibility for anyone getting lost as result of reading the above! If you end up in the dry valley and can't find the entrance as described it is most likely that you have taken the lower of the two sheep tracks, so head uphill - the correct path is pretty obvious at the point where it crosses the dry valley.
 

Geoff R

New member
cap 'n chris said:
Hi Geoff, PD is a great little cave. I've got a topo if you want one - PM me. Have a great time; it's just like Rhino Rift only Welsh.


Thanks Chris, Im OK on the topo thanks to kind UKCAVING    :hug:  (ha, and you have copied the same link - thanks)
Just like Rhino ere  (y)  One day I would very much like to try Rhino's alternate route, but I also want to complete my little topo of the bottom end of Thrupe  Lane that you kindly added to.  And we must get back to the Dales.  And have yet to visit the Peak District  :eek:

So little time ....    :confused:    but we are looking forward to returning to Wales  (y)

Peter Burgess said:
Tony_B said:
I strongly recommend, however, the use of [a GPS or] someone who's been there before!

That's what I did when I went there. But don't ask me - it was a long time ago!

Goodness - thanks all - does anyone have its GPS coords as luck would have it I have a gps in my mobile phone.
Im no lover of wandering lost on (lovely) hillside so do very much appreciate your warnings and help

 

cap n chris

Well-known member
Grid Ref SN 83321,16494 (GPS), Alt. appr 1700?

If you go to OS Maps, "Get a Map" and use SN833164 you'll get an OS Map with Pwll Dwfn shown; perhaps worth printing that out and taking it along too. Alternatively you can visit Dan-yr-Ogof's Website and click on the top right corner "Sat Nav" button which gives you a multimap view into which you can zoom and go for the satellite picture from which you can see the car park, pathway and route up the hillside (steep BTW).

DYO Website: http://www.showcaves.co.uk/index.html
Go to the multimap view (ignore the red circle! - you park about two fields to the north)
 

NigR

New member
Geoff,

If you go to Pwll Dwfn don't leave any gear in or around the entrance. A mate of mine went there a couple of years ago (think it was an OUCC trip) and they came out to find that a couple of tackle bags they had stashed just inside the entrance had been stolen. My mate lost his GPS which was a real bummer so if you take yours be sure to hide it somewhere well out of sight or take it down the cave with you. Pwll Dwfn is quite close to the road and it is not only cavers and genuine walkers who go there, particularly in summer.
 

paul

Moderator
NigR said:
Geoff,

If you go to Pwll Dwfn don't leave any gear in or around the entrance. A mate of mine went there a couple of years ago (think it was an OUCC trip) and they came out to find that a couple of tackle bags they had stashed just inside the entrance had been stolen. My mate lost his GPS which was a real bummer so if you take yours be sure to hide it somewhere well out of sight or take it down the cave with you. Pwll Dwfn is quite close to the road and it is not only cavers and genuine walkers who go there, particularly in summer.

One of a group I was with on a trip down Pwll Dwfn accidentally left a Petzl Pantin on the surface near the entrance. Unfortunately it was gone when he went to retrieve it afterwards.
 

Tony_B

Member
I need to add a brief correction to my earlier description of how to find Pwll Dwfn: the sign with the walker symbol on it that I mentioned actually points down the hill while obviously you will be walking uphill.
 

Geoff R

New member
Thank you everyone who gave advise on Wales SRTing.
On Saturday four of us bottomed Pwll Dwfn.

Underground the conditions were excellent; dry and just a little drippy, despite a horrible wet few days and very wet hill sides with paths made into streams. Not saying conditions would always be this excellent in Pwll Dwfn in such wet weather, but it was for us.

Our impression :-

An EXCELLENT technical, enjoyable and interesting SRT trip, well worth potential difficulty finding its entrance and with really nice pitches and rigging requirements.  It was a good day and one we will definitely repeat, (perhaps in April).

Sunday with the cave rescue going on in DYO and not requiring assistance, we explored in OFD2

Thank you UKCAVING for advise  (y)
Thanks SWCC for such a very sociable & enjoyable stay  :hug:  and well done WBCRT and divers in DYO  (y)


   
 
H

Hurricane

Guest
The two pitches at the Frozen River already mentioned are often used for training. The first one on the right is short and a straight drop off from a couple of spits in the left wall. The second is on the left and has the option to add a deviation/ reblay half way down from a spit in the opposite wall (which can be a bit akward to get to).

Re: the Nave pitch, this is rigged off naturals and therefore lends itself to ladder and lifeline much better than SRT so possibly better to come back up Maypole Inlet or simply back up Swamp Creek.

Swamp Creek - Crevasse (via Pendulum Passage) exchange is jolly good.

Pant Mawr is like a little bit of Yorkshire in Wales.
 

Geoff R

New member
Hurricane said:
The two pitches at the Frozen River already mentioned are often used for training. The first one on the right is short and a straight drop off from a couple of spits in the left wall. The second is on the left and has the option to add a deviation/ reblay half way down from a spit in the opposite wall (which can be a bit akward to get to).

Re: the Nave pitch, this is rigged off naturals and therefore lends itself to ladder and lifeline much better than SRT so possibly better to come back up Maypole Inlet or simply back up Swamp Creek.

Swamp Creek - Crevasse (via Pendulum Passage) exchange is jolly good.

Pant Mawr is like a little bit of Yorkshire in Wales.

On our Sundays walk around, I think (guess) we found the two pitches in Frozen River and a-another, installed I guess for cave rescue lifts and they looked quite nice for someone doing initial training; we spotted (13mm ?) threads protected by tubing, for spits to be attached, rather than resin P's.  My thought was that these pitches were OK but no where near as interesting as rigging Pwll Dwfn (a vertical cave Im impressed with for its variety).

Pant Mawr sounds interesting and I hear tell of a Mine not too far away that is SRTable and multi level and interesting and is on spits, but dont know any more than a passing comment from a friend  :) :)
 
Top